The American Blitzkrieg on Venezuela: No one is safe

The military incursion and kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro shows how normalized the outrageous has become
After five months – really two-and-a-half decades – of ever-escalating preparations by increasing diplomatic, economic, and clandestine warfare, the US has finally executed a full regime-change invasion in Venezuela. The final attack, focused on kidnapping the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from the capital Caracas, was short. But the campaign has certainly not been bloodless. While we know little about what exactly happened on the ground, Washington’s perfectly criminal strikes on alleged smuggling boats at sea which served as the core of the attack’s preparatory propaganda barrage, , not to speak of the overlooked victims of sanctions.
Then, what American officials have called a large-scale strike against Venezuela in the early hours of January 3 targeted not only Caracas but several locations throughout the country. For whatever reason, resistance to this dark and deadly (in President Donald Trump’s words) operation, seems to have been minimal. In view of the long and very visible military buildup, as well as psychological warfare campaign that preceded these night raids, it is hard to believe that they came as a surprise. Betrayal, subversion, and secret, nasty deals may well have played a role.
While such things will probably remain murky for a while – or forever – other, more important aspects of the US invasion of Venezuela are unambiguously clear: It is absolutely, irredeemably illegal, a massive and open breach of the UN Charter’s prohibition of wars of aggression. Even some of America’s most loyal ‘Atlanticist’ vassals in Europe have to admit that much, for instance, .
Washington’s pretexts are, as so often, flimsy insults to everyone with half a brain. Venezuela and Maduro are not contributing anything significant – if anything at all – to America’s very own and never-ending drug problems, neither with regard to cocaine nor fentanyl. And Maduro’s election in 2024 may have been fair or not. The decisive, conclusive point is that such issues must be dealt with inside a sovereign country and can never justify military intervention from outside. Or who is going to be next? Germany for the extremely dubious way (polite expression) its mainstream parties have locked the New-Left BSW out of parliament in what may well amount to a cold coup?
Bizarre ramblings, also heard recently, about Iran and Venezuela, are pretexts as well. But indirectly they do point to some actual truths.  that Israel and the US are currently committing together. And Israeli politicians, always the absolute bullies, . Trump, meanwhile, has made a point of putting his assault in the context of the assassination .
It’s not hard to understand the real reasons for the American onslaught on Venezuela, partly because American officials, including Trump himself, have spoken openly about them. Venezuela has the single greatest national oil reserves in the world and, in addition, significant deposits of gold, rare earths, and other raw materials.
Trump has claimed and its companies (same thing for him anyhow) and promised to reconquer them, which he is doing now. Greed, plain and simple, is a main driver of this dirty Blitzkrieg against a militarily de facto helpless victim. As Trump himself has admitted, this is about
But greed isn’t all. There also are geopolitics. Like Washington’s recent electoral interference in and , the ongoing pressure on Brazil ( a little, but who knows for how long), Colombia (), Nicaragua, and Cuba. Add in the shameless , the assault on Venezuela is also an application of what has been termed the Donroe Doctrine. The meaning of the latter is, in essence, simple: it’s the bad old Monroe Doctrine – going back over 200 years now – but even worse.
Marco Rubio, former Trump dis